What the candidates watch

I’m not buying the stories in TV Guide purporting to unveil which shows the presidential candidates favor. Obviously such questionnaires are filled out not by the candidates themselves, but by staff-level political operatives with marketing backgrounds and stacks of polling data demographics on hand.

Hillary supposedly claims her all-time favorite show is “Ed Sullivan” and her current fave is “Grey’s Anatomy.” In other words, her people think she can count on the female-skewing vote, needs the senior voting bloc and is playing to both.

Barack Obama’s answer, SpongeBob Squarepants, which he attributed to his kids’ viewing habits, is innocuous. His choice of “M*A*S*H” as an all-time favorite could be a nod to veterans, and “The Wire” is a superb choice critically, but could also be a play to his base.

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John McCain listed “Prison Break,” which cable news picked up on cue as a chance to reference his time as a POW.

The whole thing is an exercise in spin, and not even the sort of spin worth deconstructing. If the candidates watch anything at all, it’s replays of their own debate performances to study for upcoming TV appearances.

Joanne Ostrow has been watching TV since before "reality" required quotation marks. "Hill Street Blues" was life-changing. If Dickens, Twain or Agatha Christie were alive today, they'd be writing for television. And proud of it.